A Lesson Learned
by Lost2Paradise
Summary: Just a short one-shot based of the song from the rings of ahkaten. Enjoy.


"Doctor! Doctor no!" Anna collapsed next to the fallen man, the fallen time lord, her fallen Doctor.

"Doctor don't you dare die. Don't you dare." she growled, tears welling in her eyes. She brushed the hair from his face, trying to get his attention. His eyes were unfocused, and she could see the light going from them. And it was all her fault.

He wouldn't regenerate this time, as he promised he would. She hadn't understood how, it hadn't mattered, but what she did understand was that things had gone wrong. She had let slip about him, because she just HAD to tell someone. And now he was dying.

The Doctor had shown her so much in so little time. They had only been together two days, and yet it felt like the knowledge of the years had crammed itself inside of her head. No, wait, it had...or at least a portion of it.

The Doctor's eyes wouldn't stay open. His mouth opened, trying to say something, and a beautiful glowing golden wisp escaped his lips. Regeneration energy, the last of his. Something inside forced her forward, forced her face over the light.

It seeped into her eyes, filling them, filling her body, filling her mind. It began to burn, a deep, unquenchable burn, soul deep. Thoughts and images flashed through her head, knowledge like nothing she'd ever known. A voice, different from all the rest somehow, began to whisper.

It sounded like a song.

"A story to save the fallen. We must wake him. Wake my Time Lord." Then it was gone, the song overshadowing all else. Anna looked at the Doctor, just clinging by the barest of threads, and sang. It was stilted and shaky. She had never been so scared.

The Doctor's eyes closed.

A tear slid down her cheek, before she closed her own. This song, this story, was the only thing that could save the Doctor's life, and it required more than she was giving, it needed precision, and above that, heart and soul. And so she opened herself, with more on the line than ever before, and sang.

"Rest now my warrior.

Rest now, your shame is over.

Live."

She put each memory, each thing the Doctor had told her, into her song. She poured forth every single thing she had ever felt while with him, every thought she'd had, every smile they'd shared.

"Wake up.

Wake up.

And let the cloak of light,

cling to your bones,

cling to your bones."

It was a prayer, a plea. Yet with each word, the pain grew worse, the heat spread.

"Wake up.

Wake up."

Fire furled through every part of her being, every strand of hair, every molecule. A scream built in her throat, but she refused to let it out.

"And let the cloak of light,

cling to your bones...

cling to your bones.

Wake up."

The scream refused to be dissapated and so she used it. One last imploration to whoever and whatever was out there, helping her. One last demand on the Doctor that had given her so much.

"Wake up!" She ceded to the scream only for that same golden light, that wisp of energy, to go with it.

The light shot into the Doctor, jolting him, making him convulse on the floor. His eyes shot open, but the song still rang through her head. She nearly stammered to keep up with it.

"Wake up.

Wake up.

And let the cloak of light,

cling to your bones,

cling to your bones."

Still the regeneration energy poured from her, straight into him. She dared to smile, but everything was going blurry around the edges. She saw wonder on his face, but he was frowning. Why was he frowning at her?

"Wake up.

Wake up."

It was a struggle suddenly to get the words out, she was so tired. So very tired.

"Wake up.

Wake up..."

This was it, the burning was almost gone, she saw only darkness around them. A thought, just briefly, as if unimmportant, flashed through her head. Was she dying? Ironic. She smiled, saw herself collapsing from an arial view, saw the Doctor catch her as she finished the story.

"Live."

The light drained, and she watched herself die. Why was she so sad about it? Wasn't that what she had wanted not two days ago?

The Doctor had found her, on the top of a service elevator on the face of Big Ben. He just appeared out of nowhere, saying something to himself about giant clocks being brilliant. When he saw her, when he realized what she was doing, he was furious. Literally swept her off her feet and carried her right inside the TARDIS without a second thought, lecturing the entire way.

He never shut up, in fact. Not for more than a few minutes. In the 48 hours she'd known him, he'd never stopped showing her exactly what she would be missing, showing her the wonder of the world, worlds, around her.

Now Anna shook a head that had no real substance, felt herself letting go. She closed her eyes, ready to die, only to have something seize her none too kindly.

Anna opened her eyes in a sort of half-panic, expecting some new alien ready to harm her.

All she saw was a man in the Doctors clothes. He was frowning.

"What did I tell you about giving up your life? It's precious Anna, so precious. What do I have to do to make that stick?" He asked, taking her face in his hands. And in that moment she knew, it was a lesson, a fact, that she would never forget again.


End file.
